Horse Colors for the American Horseman Quiz

Answer: Bay

Bays can come in many shades, from a rich brown, to a red (sometimes called a blood bay), to an almost black-brown (sometimes called a black bay.) A bay can also be dappled, like a dapple gray.

A bay horse has all black points, which are the mane/tail, the legs, the ears and the muzzle.

Answer: Cremello

A cremello is a type of chestnut, just like the Palomino. The cremello has a white mane/tail, while the other like color, the perlino, has an orangish and darker mane/tail.

Answer: Dun

A dun that has a black mane/tail often gets mixed up with the buckskin, but the difference is that the dun has a dorsal stripe while the buckskin does not. A dun can also have zebra stripes on its legs, much like the grullo. They can come in many different shades, including a red dun, a bay dun and a "regular" dun, in which the legs are a darker color than the body of the horse.

Answer: grullo

It's one of the more unusual shades of horses. The grullo (sometimes spelled grulla) horse may also have shoulder stripes and zebra stripes on the legs. Some other primitive markings that the grullo may have are a face mask, cobwebbing or mottling.

For future reference: both "grullo" & "grulla" spellings are correct.

In the AQHA registrary, only 1040 out of 143373 horses were registered as a grullo in 2001. http://www.aqha.com/association/registration/rulebook/registration.pdf

Answer: Gray

Some people mistake a gray horse for a white one, but you can tell the difference by looking at the skin. The skin of a gray horse will be black, while the skin of a white horse will be pink.

There are several varieties of gray, including fleabitten, dappled, light, steel and rose gray. A rose gray is an unusual color in which the medium-gray hair is tinted with red.

One breed of horse that almost always turns gray with age is the Lipizzan.

Answer: Buckskin

The difference between a dun and a buckskin is that the buckskin doesn't have a dorsal stripe. Buckskins do not have any primitive markings that the dun and grullo have.

"Since 1987 the AQHA has classified a horse with a dorsal stripe as a dun and a horse without the dorsal stripe as a buckskin."

The dun & the buckskin are genetically different colors-not just surface colors!

Answer: Red Roan

The roan color also comes in blue roan and strawberry roan. The blue roan is with black and white instead of red and white, while the strawberry roan is with a chestnut coloring and white. Aside from those three colors, the roan can come in almost any horse color, including buckskin and palomino.

Answer: Appaloosa

The spotted coat is mostly known through the Appaloosa, but it is also seen on several other breeds, including the Knapstrub, Pony of America, Palouse pony, and Noriker (also known as the Noric and Pinzgauer.)

There are several different variations of the spotted color, including leopard which is large dark spots over the entire white body. Snowflake is white spots over a dark coat, a blanket is a white blanket with dark spots on it with the body of a horse being a solid color. Marble is small dark marks over a coat of any color. Frost is just the opposite; small white marks over a dark base color.

Answer: Palomino

Like the Appaloosa, the Palomino is a color variation as well as a breed. A Palomino can be many shades of gold, from a light, almost white shade, to a deep gold.

Answer: Pearl

Pearl is found in several Spanish-based breeds, including Andalusians and Lusitanos. It's also found in Gypsy horses, the American Paint Horse and Peruvian Pasos. When in its homozygous form, it dilutes the coat once (like a palomino or buckskin, but is recessive (hidden) in its heterozygous form unless combined with cream. http://gowerphotos.tripod.com/chalani/hgenetics.htm and http://www.horsenetwork.com/reference/horsecolors.html http://www.equusite.com/articles/basics/basicsColors.shtml http://www.horsedirectory.com.au/horseresources/general/ColoursMarkings.html